Opening Educational Practices in Scotland

Open Educational Resources (OER) are frequently heralded as opening up new possibilities for widening access to education, however, the evidence to date is that this has not been achieved at any significant scale. Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) is a new three-year project funded by the Scottish Funding council (www.oepscotland.org ). The project, led by the OU in Scotland is intended to involve the whole Scottish Higher Education Sector and has a focus on developing effective practices that can support widening participation and transitions between different phases of the learning journey. The poster highlights some examples of the creation and use of OER in widening participation partnerships that have informed the direction of the project. Early findings suggest that practices around the development, use and reuse of OER can be more important than the content. Working in partnership with organisations in the workplace and community settings, OERs can be used flexibly to offer new pedagogically sound models of learning. If used effectively, OERs have the potential to:- provide a variety of pathways from informal to formal learning; widen participation in education; provide opportunities for learners to access a broader curriculum and relevant skills development; reduce duplication and costs through creating a culture of collaborative development and reuse across the sector. The poster also outlines the objectives of the OEPS project

Virtue and austerity

Virtue ethics is often proposed as a third way in health-care ethics, that while consequentialism and deontology focus on action guidelines, virtue focuses on character; all three aim to help agents discern morally right action although virtue seems to have least to contribute to political issues, such as austerity. I claim: (1) This is a bad way to characterize virtue ethics. The 20th century renaissance of virtue ethics was first proposed as a response to the difficulty of making sense of ‘moral rightness’ outside a religious context. For Aristotle the right action is that which is practically best; that means best for the agent in order to live a flourishing life.There are no moral considerations besides this. (2) Properly characterized, virtue ethics can contribute to discussion of austerity. A criticism of virtue ethics is that fixed characteristics seem a bad idea in ever-changing environments; perhaps we should be generous in prosperity, selfish in austerity. Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests that people indeed do change with their environment. However, I argue that virtues concern fixed values not fixed behaviour; the values underlying virtue allow for different behaviour in different circumstances: in austerity, virtues still give the agent the best chance of flourishing. Two questions arise. (a) In austere environments might not injustice help an individual flourish by, say, obtaining material goods? No, because unjust acts undermine the type of society the agent needs for flourishing. (b) What good is virtue to those lacking the other means to flourish? The notion of degrees of flourishing shows that most people would benefit somewhat from virtue. However, in extreme circumstances virtue might harm rather than benefit the agent: such circumstances are to be avoided; virtue ethics thus has a political agenda to enable flourishing. This requires justice, a fortiori when in austerity

Marxism Lost and Found: Alasdair MacIntyre and the Contemporary Debate

This paper examines the changing nature of debates that focus on the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre. Whilst outlining the history of MacIntyre’s engagement with Marxism and some of his key ideas, it argues that it is only recently that such debates have begun to rightfully recognise the continued relevance of Marxism to such discussions. I note that crucial aspects of MacIntyre’s politics and philosophy, particularly his opposition to capitalism, are now integral to the contemporary debate which helps in generating a shared vision of radical politics. Nevertheless, I point out that key disagreements still remain as to the role of Marxism within such debates, the validity of MacIntyre’s critique of Marxism, as well as the potentially problematic post-Marxist practice that MacIntyre advocates in After Virtue and beyond

An audit of intrathecal morphine analgesia for non-obstetric postsurgical patients in an adult tertiary hospital

Publisher's copy made available with the permission of the publisher © Australian Society of AnaesthetistsWe conducted a retrospective audit of adult non-obstetric patients who had received a single dose of intrathecal morphine for postoperative analgesia. These patients were predominantly admitted to a regular postsurgical ward with strict hourly nursing observations, treatment protocols in place and supervision by an Acute Pain Service for the first 24 hours after intrathecal morphine administration. A total of 409 cases were examined for sedation score, incidence of respiratory depression and other side-effects, admission to the high dependency or intensive care unit and opioid-tolerance. Respiratory depression was defined as requiring treatment with naloxone (implying a sedation score of 3 irrespective of respiratory rate), or a sedation score of 2 with a respiratory rate less than six breaths per minute. The patients were predominantly elderly (57.2% were over the age of 70 years) and 84.8% had undergone vascular surgery. Of the total of 409 cases, only one case of respiratory depression was observed. A total of 77 patients were admitted to high dependency or intensive care unit for various reasons including management of postsurgical complications and patient co-morbidities. Our findings suggest that elderly patients who receive intrathecal morphine analgesia can be safely managed in a regular postsurgical ward.P. C. Lim, P. E. MacIntyrehttp://www.aaic.net.au/Article.asp?D=200514

Pain scores in the early postoperative period

Publisher's copy made available with the permission of the publisher © Australian Society of Anaesthetistshttp://www.aaic.net.au/Article.asp?D=200314

The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and Enjoyment in the Foreign Language Classroom

The present study investigates Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) in the classroom. Participants were 1746 current FL learners from around the world. We used a measure of FLE, based on Likert scale ratings of 21 items (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014), and a measure of FLCA based on 8 items extracted from the FLCAS (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). Statistical analyses revealed that levels of FLE were significantly higher than those of FLCA. FLE and FLCA were linked to a number of independent variables: participants’ perception of their relative level of proficiency within the FL classroom, number of languages known, education level, number of FLs under study, age group and general level of the FL (ranging from lower-intermediate to advanced). Female participants reported both more FLE and more FLCA. Cultural background of participants also had a significant effect on their scores. Participants’ views on episodes of enjoyment in the FL class revealed the importance of teachers’ professional and emotional skills and of a supportive peer group. Many participants mentioned the moment at which they realised that their long effort in mastering an aspect of the FL paid off

Trace organic analyses of effluent waters from a model slurry pipeline carrying Appalachian bituminous coal : final report

Effluent waters from a model coal slurry pipeline have been analyzed for trace dissolved organic compounds. The model pipeline was operated under conditions simulating those proposed for a slurry pipeline from the region of Bristol to Hampton Roads, Virginia. Acidic, neutral and basic organic compounds in the separated waters were determined. Concentrations of individual compounds detected were generally less than 0.5 ppb and never exceeded 6 ppb. Adsorption experiments using coal slurry sorbents indicate that coal particles act as sorbing surfaces under coal slurry pipeline transport conditions